Charlie O’Driscoll – Edenbridge

April 2018

Barrister forced to cover paedophile in make-up after prison beating

A pervert who had sex with a 13-year-old girl in his van was so badly beaten up in prison that his barrister used make-up to cover his bruises during his trial.

Janine Brimelow did not want the the jury to see that Charlie O’Driscoll had been attacked by other inmates, so she applied make-up before he entered Maidstone Crown Court.

O’Driscoll was on remand for rape and sexual activity at HMP Elmley but refused to go on the vulnerable persons’ wing, and was later targeted by inmates.

Miss Brimelow told the court: ‘It is the first time in rather a long career that I have done that. ‘I applied concealer on bruising and swelling and it was very effective so the jury wouldn’t be prejudiced in any way as to how violence occurred.

‘He was stamped on his face and left with a red mark which lasted a week. It was very shocking, he was close to tears and absolutely shaken by the experience.’

Since his conviction, the 37-year-old has been held on the prison’s sex offender wing and was said to be ‘struggling’.

The married dad-of-four, from the travelling community in Edenbridge, Kent, was jailed for four years and nine months.

The court heard he met his teenage victim by chance in October last year and, having ‘entertained’ her with alcohol and cigarettes, tried to book a hotel room in Westerham, Kent, and then at the nearby Days Inn at Clacket Lane Services on the M25 in Surrey.

His credit card failed on both occasions, so O’Driscoll simply pulled up in a lay-by and had sex with the girl in his van without any protection.

He told the jury the girl’s company ‘made him feel young again’.

Passing sentence, Judge Philip Statman said although the sex was consensual and there was no grooming, O’Driscoll knew she was under-age.

He said: ‘You were mature, a man of the world with a family. You knew precisely what it was that you were doing. You took the chance and you had sexual intercourse with her. That breaks the law.’